Barrel washing apparatus



March126, 1963 A. w. STAUFFER BARREL WASHING APPARATUS Filed F'Gb. 9, 59

INVENTOR. ANND/V W. 57/? UFFER' I III I United States Patent 3,082,776BARREL WAS G APPARATUS Amman W. Stauifer, Box 2, Terre Hill, Pa. FiledFeb. 9, 1959, 'Ser. No. 792,028 2 Claims. (Cl. 134--152) This inventionrelates to an apparatus for washing steel drums or barrels and is moreparticularly directed to apparatus for cleaning and washing of saiddrums or barrels, in which said barrels are employed by rendering plantsand butcher shops, and are required to be both clean and sanitary. It isan object of this invention to provide a barrel cleaner and washer whichremoves all grease and foreign matter from the entire internal andexternal surface of a steel drum or barrel, readying it for reuse.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a single machinewhich will receive a single barrel, clean the outside and insidesurfaces and the inset bottom all in a single operation, and deliver thecleaned and sanitized barrel ready for reuse.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a barrel cleaningapparatus, including novel means for rotatably supporting and/ ordriving said barrel While retained in an inclined relation to saidapparatus.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a barrel cleaningapparatus including a drive for rotating said barrel and wherein a novelspray means is provided to clean and sanitize both the outside andinside of said barrel.

Further objects and advantages of this invention shall be apparent fromthe following detailed description and the drawings, in which FIG. 1 isa front elevational view of the barrel washer;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view, taken on line 2-2 of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a front elevational view of a further embodiment of thisinvention.

Referring to FIG. 1, there is illustrated a barrel Washer 1 1), whichincludes a complete frame 11. Supported within this frame 11 is acompletely enclosed housing 12, housing 12 being provided with a largefront opening 14, which is closed by a panel 15 during the operation ofthe device. Panel 15 may be retained in its closed sealed position by aplurality of brackets 16 at the bottom edge of opening 14 and slidablelatches 17 supported adjacent the upper portion of panel 15 so that theymay be moved into a locked position to retain panel 15 tightly closed.The lower portion of housing 12 is in fact a tank or fluid retainingarea 18. A drain 19 and shut ofi valve 20 are provided at the bottom oftank 18, thus the tank may be readily drained by opening valve 20.Supported within the housing 12 is the barrel supporting and drivingelements, a frame 21 which comprises two parallel supporting members 22positioned adjacent the rear wall of the housing and two parallelsupporting members 23 adjacent the front or the open portion of thehousing. At the upper end of members 22 there is a rotatable shaft 24extending through both members 22, and retained in an inclined position,and supporting a pair of rubber drive wheels 26 afiixed to shaft 24 torotate with shaft 24 and positioned at opposite ends. Shaft 24 at oneend is also provided with a sprocket 27. The other pair of supportingmembers 23 are pivotally mounted on a shaft 30, and at their oppositeend support a shaft 31, shaft 31 being retained in an inclined positionparallel to shaft 24, shaft 31 also supporting at either end thereof apair of rubber drive wheels 32 affixed to shaft 31 to rotate with shaft31. Shaft 31 at one end is also provided with a sprocket 33. Shaft iscentrally positioned below the supporting framework and shaft 30 extendsin an inclined 3,082,776 Patented Mar. 26, 1963 ice position parallel toshafts 24 and 31. Shaft 30 at one end is supported in a bearing 34 andat its opposite end in a universal joint 35. A shaft 36 extends from theuniversal joint 35 through the housing 12 and is provided with a drivesprocket 37 outside housing 12. Shaft 36 is of course mounted in abearing and seal in the wall of housing 12. Supported on shaft 30 are apair of sprockets 38 and 39. The sprockets are positioned in alignmentwith sprockets 27 and 33 respectively, so that a chain 40 may be mountedabout sprockets 27 and 38, while a chain 41 is mounted about sprockets33 and 39. With this arrangement it is apparent that a chain drive (notshown) may be connected to sprocket 37 and this drive will betransmit-ted through shaft 36 and shaft 30 to sprockets 38 and 39, andin turn through the chains to sprockets 37 and 33 respectively to thusdrive shafts 24 and 31, which in turn drive the rubber drive wheels 26and 32. It is to be noted that the drive of the rubber drive wheels mustbe in the same direction, either all clockwise or all counterclockwise,so that the rotation of the drum or barrel will be continued by itscontact with the rubber drive wheels. Due to the inclined position ofthe barrel carrier and drive, it is necessary to provide a guard rail 44at the lower end of the inclined shafts, so that the barrel whenpositioned on the carrier and rotated will be retained by the guard rail44 and prevented from moving toward one side of the housing 12.

Referring to the pair of suporting members 23, which were described aspivotally mounted on shaft 30, members 23 are retained in a fixedparallel relationship to each other, so that shaft 31 may be dropped toa loading position as illustrated in full lines in FIG. 2. To assistmembers 23 in this loading position, each member 23 is provided with anextended barrel supporting strap 45, the supporting strap 45 abuttingwith the edge of opening 14 in the fully lowered position of elements23. It is to be noted that the straps 45 are turned upward at their endto form a stop so that when a barrel is loaded onto elements 45 itcannot fall off. After the barrel is positioned on elements 45 it isthen rolled into the machine, rolling over the drive rollers 32 and thusabutting with the drive rollers 26. A cable 46 is connected to shaft 31and cable 46 passes over a pulley 47, which is supported by an arm 48,arm 48 being supported on shaft 30, and arm 48 is retained in thisposition by a rod 49 extending from the housing. Cable 46 extends frompulley 47 through the wall of the housing 12 to a pulley 50, aroundpulley 50 and back outside the housing 12, and connected to a lever 51;the lever 51 is pivotally supported by the frame 11 at a point 52, thuswhen lever 51 is pulled forward to the dotted position illustrated inFIG. 2, cable 46 will pull shaft 31 upward to the dotted positionillustrated, and at the same time lift the drum or barrel to the dottedposition illustrated. Lever 51 must be located in the dotted positionillustrated by a simple hook latch 53, to thus retain the drum or barrelin its position for cleaning and washing, and the panel 15 must beinserted in its sealed position to enclose the housing 12. It is to benoted that elements 45 are pivotally movable inward, as shown in thedotted position in FIG. 2, but may be located in a parallel relationshipwith members 23 when in a lowered position, or it is possible to bendmembers 45 inward as illustrated, whereas it is impossible to bendmembers 45 in the opposite direction when loading a drum or barrel.

The housing 12 is also provided with hot Water spray nozzles 61. Theinlet line for these nozzles is provided with a shut off valve 63. Thusthe hot water line may be opened to spray the barrel inside and outsidewith hot water. A steam line may be opened to maintain the water that isbeing sprayed at a high temperature to thus thoroughly clean the barrelor drum inside and outside, the steam line being provided with a shut01f valve 62. Bothshut off valves may be opened and thus maintain thewater sprayed at a high temperature to clean the barrel or drum. It isto be noted further that the spray nozzles are positioned, for example,one directed toward the inside surface of the barrel while the othernozzle is directed toward the outside surface of the barrel, so that thebarrel will be sprayed with hot water outside and inside. The nozzlesare also directing hot water toward the inset bottom of the barrel ordrum. It is to be noted that in the event one valve is opened, such asthe water line, although the spray nozzlesare directed to only a limitedportion of the inside surface and outside surface of the barrel, due tothe con-' tinuous rotation of the barrel on the' drive rollers 26 and32, the complete internal and external surface of the barrel will betreated by this spray. It is also to be noted that the barrel issupported in an inclined positio during this washing operation with itsopen end toward the lower end ofthe incline, facing the spray nozzles,so that as the water is sprayed into the barrel, the fluid will run downto the lowest point of the incline, which will be the open lip of thebarrel, and thus spill out into the tank portion 18. The hot waterutilized for cleaning is first mixed in a tank (not shown) with adetergent, so that the hot water and detergent will provide the propercutting and dissolving action o the grease that is found in theparticular type of barrels that are being cleaned in this apparatus;Also the steam line is connected to mix with the fluid to increase itstemperature and the effectiveness or pressure of the fluid cutting andremoving of the grease from within and on the outside surface of thebarrel.

The average time required for a particular washing operation is thirtyseconds; however, this may vary in the event the foreign matter is of adifferent nature.

Although the steam and water are both utilized in a cleaning and washingoperation, that is the steam raises the temperature of the detergent,thus providing the means to meltand cut through hard grease-found inthis' type of operation, and of course the hotwater provides thenecessary washing or carrier to carry awaythe grease and foreign matterthat is removed from the surfaces of the barrel, it is also apparentthat the extremely hot water may be utilized, after the barrel has beencleaned, to insure the killing of all germs that may have remainedwithin or on the barrel, and thus finish the cleaning and treatment ofthe barrel to provide a clean and perfectly sanitary drum or barrel forreuse.

Referring to FIG. 3, there is illustreated a further embodiment of thisinvention, in which the washer 10, shown in FIG. 1, is also providedwith a rotatable brush 65 that is supported on a shaft 66, the shaft 66extending through the wall of housing 12. Shaft 66 is positioned in aninclined relation, so that the brush 65 may be moved within the barrelbeing cleaned, while rotated in its inclined position. Thus shaft 66 is'movable in and out of housing 12, to move brush 65 within the barrelbeing cleaned. Shaft 66 is not rotated but is held in a stationaryposition with relation to rotation, as the barrel itself is beingrotated.

The barrel or drum washer disclosed herein is provided to wash onebarrel at a time, and although the washer discloses water linesforspraying the drum or barrel, these sprays may be used for any cleaningfluid without departing from the spirit of this invention, and althoughthe spray lines are connected to a supply not shown, the water line mayalso be connected to an auxiliary line 67, in which a pump 68 isprovided so that the cleaning fluid or water and detergent from tank 18may be recirculated by the pump 68 through line 67 to the nozzles 61 tobe reused for cleaning the barrel, without departing from the spirit ofthis invention, and although the barrel supporting and driving apparatushas been shown as positioned in an inclined position, the angular degreeof the incline may be increased or decreased, depending upon the shapeof the barrel or drum. For example, a straight side drum requires verylittle incline, whereas a bar-rel having rounded sides may require agreater incline to insure the complete dumping of the fluid from thebarrel during the cleaning operation, and although theapparatus'discloses a plurality of rubber drive wheels to produce arotation of the barrel, other means such as a single contact with thebarrel to produce rotation may be utilized without departing from thespirit of this invention, and this invention shall be limited only bythe appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A washer for barrels which includes an enclosure for the washing.operation, supporting elements to retain the barrel being cleaned, saidsupporting element retaining said barrel on a fixed inclined centrallongitudinal axis, with the closed end of the barrel up, said supportingelemerits providing the means to rotate said barrel while being retainedon said inclined axis during a washing operation, a plurality of waterjets within said washer enclosure that are directed at both the insideand outside surfaces of said barrel, said water within said barreldraining out' by gravity.

2. In a device according to claim 1, in which the barrel Washer is alsoprovided with a guard rail to prevent the inclined barrel from shiftingdownward on its fixed axis toward the lowest end of itssupport.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS371,046 Eberhardt Oct. 4, 1887 424,102 Edds Mar. 25, 1890 999,208 ClutheAug. 1, 1911 1,132,597 Marlin Mar. 23, 1915 2,228,684 Barnum Jan. 14,1941 2,330,605 Meyer Sept. 28, 1943 2,395,593 Trager Sept. 26, 19462,764,171 Nolte Sept. 25, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 8,542 Great Britain of1911 584,264 Germany Sept. 16, 1933

1. A WASHER FOR BARRELS WHICH INCLUDES AN ENCLOSURE FOR THE WASHINGOPERATION, SUPPORTING ELEMENTS TO RETAIN THE BARREL BEING CLEANED, SAIDSUPPORTING ELEMENT RETAINING SAID BARREL ON A FIXED INCLINED CENTRALLONGITUDINAL AXIS, WITH THE CLOSED END OF THE BARREL UP, SAID SUPPORTINGELEMENTS PROVIDING THE MEANS TO ROTATE SAID BARREL WHILE BEING RETAINEDON SAID INCLINED AXIS DURING A WASHING OPERATION, A PLURALITY OF WATERJETS WITHIN SAID WASHER ENCLOSURE THAT ARE DIRECTED AT BOTH THE INSIDEAND OUTSIDE SURFACES OF SAID BARREL, SAID WATER WITHIN SAID BARRELDRAINING OUT BY GRAVITY.